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GDR Bulletin Volume 22 Issue 1 Spring Article 15 1995 Wolfgang Rüddenklau: Störenfried. DDR-Opposition 1986-1989 Joyce Marie Mushaben Ohio State University Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/gdr This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Mushaben, Joyce Marie (1995) "Wolfgang Rüddenklau: Störenfried. DDR-Opposition 1986-1989," GDR Bulletin: Vol. 22: Iss. 1. https://doi.org/10.4148/gdrb.v22i1.1169 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in GDR Bulletin by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact cads@k- state.edu. Mushaben: Wolfgang Rüddenklau: Störenfried. DDR-Opposition 1986-1989 36 GDR BULLETIN 34), wie auch ihr Verhalten in den Affären um Walter Rüddenklau, Wolfgang. Störenfried. DDR- Janka und Paul Merker (44-45); selbst Das siebte Kreuz Opposition 1986-1989. Berlin: Basisdruck, 1992. hat 1990 für ihn an Glanz verloren (46). 386 pp. Bei Stefan Heym und Christa Wolf scheint er allerdings über sein Ziel hinaus zu schießen und beide At the outset of this text we learn that Störenfried is a Autoren weit unter Wert zu verkaufen, um bei seiner codename the GDR secret police assigned to all actions Rabatt-Metapher zu bleiben. Zugegeben, er preist intended to undermine the East Berlin peace movement Christa Wolfs Roman Nachdenken über Christa T., hat after January 1988. The book's editor, Rüddenklau, is aber anschließend kein gutes Wort mehr für sie; 1987 one who experienced the Chikanerie of the State first- billigt er dieser "DDR-Staatsdichterin" nur noch hand, having been arrested in conjunction with the "bescheidene künstlerische und intellektuelle Zionskirche-Affäre for his work in the Umwelt- Möglichkeiten" zu (186). Mit "Staatsdichterin" prägte Bibliothek Berlin and as editor of one of the Eco-pax Reich-Ranicki bereits 1987 die Formel, die drei Jahre organizations' key publications, Umweltblätter. später im Streit um Christa Wolf eine so zweifelhafte The editor provides self-analytical and, in part, self- Rolle spielen sollte. Bei Stefan Heym ist in der Tat critical profiles of diverse underground cultural and manches recht kolportagenhaft, doch sein König David intellectual opposition groups in the 1970s, followed by Bericht ist gewiß mehr als nur eine "Offenbachiade" summary histories of their evolution through the years (73). Jurek Becker scheint dagegen entgegen aller 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989. Each overview is then Beteuerungen einen gewissen Rabatt zu genießen; mit followed by a selection of original tamizdat or samizdat vier Aufsätzen sind ihm neben Kunert und Seghers documents, that is, items published by the groups auch die meisten Beiträge gewidmet. Reich-Ranicki themselves without the formal sanction of the state. The kann zwar nicht umhin, Beckers Boxer-Roman als documents represent a wide sampling of grassroots/local "mißlungen" zu bezeichnen, doch schließt seine opposition groups; they range in form from the Besprechung nicht mit bissigen Bemerkungen, wie sie programmatic appeals and manifestos of newly sich zuhauf in seinen Aufsätzen über Christa Wolf established groups, to op-ed pieces from diverse finden, sondern mit einem "respektvollen, . underground Blätter, to analytical treatises on specific zuversichtlichen Gruß" an den "Dichter Jurek Becker" political events, (e.g., reactions to the Luxemburg (266). demonstrations, Honecker's 1987 visit to Bonn, the Insgesamt bietet Reich-Ranickis Buch eine Reihe 1988 ban against the importation of the Soviet journal von guten und treffsicheren Einblicken in wichtige Sputnik, and the 1989 International Monetary Fund Werke und Autoren der DDR-Literatur. Zuweilen summit in Berlin-West). stören unnötige Wiederholungen, der herablassend- Though individual segments of the East German ironische Ton sowie ungenügende Quellenangaben, opposition movement were quite intricately involved bewußte Kokettierung mit Bildung und manch gewollte with the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the relationship Preziosität im Stil, doch zumeist ist das Buch sehr was by no means a consistent one; their interaction was lesenswert und informativ. Hervorzuheben sind sometimes manipulative (from both sides), at other besonders die einfühlsamen Aufsätze über Günter times synergistic. The same applies to specific Kunert und Sarah Kirsch. Auch im Rückblick braucht representatives of the two groups—as demonstrated by Reich-Ranicki kaum etwas von seinen Artikeln über conflicting references to Stolpe, now the SPD Minister- Hermann Kant zurückzunehmen, die er 1966, 1972 und President of Brandenburg. Both agents of change have 1977 den Romanen Die Aula, Das Impressum und vor come to be seen in an entirely different light since allem Der Aufenthalt gewidmet hat. Kant wird hier formal unification, largely as a consequence of old charakterisiert als "routinierter und raffinierter actors jockeying for influence, relegitimation and Produzent hochwertiger literarischer Konfektion," als retribution under the new political system. Rüddenklau "Spaßmacher und Schlitzohr, dem man nicht über den is quite successful at rendering the ostensibly weak Weg trauen konnte," der aber auch ein "ernstes und nature of the underground's Widerstand comprehensible ehrliches Buch" zu verfassen in der Lage war (133). to outsiders, even though the highly detailed documents Für einen schnellen, informativen und lesenswerten occasionally leave the reader wishing for a substantial Ein- und Überblick in und über wichtige Werke und companion text on Who's Who in the GDR-Opposition Autoren der DDR-Literatur kann man Reich-Ranickis (he does provide an annotated Namenverzeichnis for recht flott geschriebenes Buch unbedingt empfehlen. more than 90 activists at the end). The author offers a feel for the contrasting "political cultures" of local KARL-HEINZ J. SCHOEPS peace, environmental, human rights and anti-fa groups University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign stretching from Uckermark to Dresden, though he Published by New Prairie Press, 1995 1 GDR Bulletin, Vol. 22 [1995], Iss. 1, Art. 15 BOOK REVIEWS 37 admits that the work is Berlin- and church-heavy in its organization and also in leadership positions within focus. In the fine tradition of participant-observation, the German Communist Party itself, Schirdewan was Riiddenklau captures the day-to-day problems and arrested by Gestapo agents in 1934. From that year interactions typical of various groups as they were until liberation by American tank troops during his perceived and played out at the time, not as they are death march in April 1945, Schirdewan was being rewritten with the help from the revelations and subjected to confinement and torture in prisons and reverberations that have ensued since unification. concentration camps. He became a member and a An extremely useful reference text for anyone secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist attempting to de- and re-construct the ebbs and flows of Unity Party and in 1953 a member of the Politbüro— her favorite movement, Störenfried nonetheless only in 1958 to be relieved of all duties in the Party. possesses a disturbing undertone for sympathetic The life of Karl Schirdewan is instructive in outsiders, especially for those of us who had hoped that itself. His is a consistent story of a communist in the "real revolutionaries" would eventually triumph continual opposition: sometimes in opposition to during the breath-taking weeks and months of 1989. legitimate government, sometimes in opposition to Rüddenklau discloses (but does not harp on) personality Hitler's aberration, sometimes in opposition to conflicts and disruptive tendencies towards persons supposed to be comrades. In this book Selbstdarstellung/Selbstprofilierung that rendered Schirdewan does not sketch the whole backdrop specific groups unfit for more effective collaborative from fascism to leftwing radicalism, but concentrates action, e.g. the Initiative für Frieden und on the period between 1953 and 1958, that is, from Menschenrechte. By telling the story of opposition like the year of Stalin's death and the reforms of the 20th it was, rather than as it might have been, he preserves a congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union very special place of GDR history ganz unten. to Schirdewan's dismissal from GDR Party leadership. JOYCE MARIE MUSHABEN Schirdewan considers himself to have been a Ohio State University loyal advocate of the revolutionary workers' movement, both early in his life and throughout his Schirdewan, Karl. Aufstand gegen Ulbricht. public career. As a consistent opponent of fascism, Berlin: Aufbau Taschenbuch Verlag, 1994. DM he contended illegally against Hitler and held that 14,90 ISBN 3-7466-8008-5 same anti-fascist position as GDR party functionary. Yet in 1958 at the 35th meeting of the Central On the cover of this diminutive AtV paperback a Committee of the SED he was slandered as picture of a cold Walter Ulbricht in topcoat and hat, revisionist. With Erich Honecker bringing charges all in brown tones, Ulbricht in a three-quarters on the basis of Ulbricht's rigid concept of a frontal view, eyes squinting off into the distance, monolithic leftwing conservatism, the meeting head back, lips tightly set as usual; and below him a degenerated into distortions of fact and defamations black-and-white inset of a warmer Karl Schirdewan, of character: "Eine politische Dekadenz breitete sich a smaller photo, full front view, bald head
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